The original, 2-page short story version of

"THE DEATH OF ROGER M. WILCOX"

The original draft was written on a mechanical typewriter, single-spaced,
with no right margin. It was based on a dream I had shortly before writing
began, during the summer between 8th and 9th grade, which itself had been
inspired by Beyond and
Back.

All spellings, punctuation, capitalizations, strings of exclamation
points, etc. are as in the original.

You have been warned.

NUMBER 3 IN THE DREAM SERIES!!!

CHAPTER ONE: 'TILL DEATH DO US PART...

Boy, what a hectic day that was! I was certainly glad to be out of Lincoln for
awhile. I could go to Mr. Kessler's class and check out the scene. AS usual,
the day was going smoothly.

In the middle of the day, around 12:30, it was litterature time. This, for some
strange reason that day, was to some extent boring. For this reason, I put my
head down on the desk, and my eyes faded heavy. Just as soon as my eyes started
closing, I started feeling really weird. And for a good reason, too — I
saw the brightest light that would ever be seen. However, it didn't seem
piercing — it felt soothingly warm, and "asked" me to follow it. I did
this, with very little restraint, as if I were being pulled. When I came past
this, I ended up at Lincoln jr. high school. Strange, though, I expected to be
at some kind of door or gateway. Nevertheless, I started lokking around the
place, to adjust to being dead.

My first encounter was with Mr. Runyon. No, he wasn't dead, but I did try the
old theory of passing through another body. Well, it sort-of worked. I mean, I
passed my hand through him, but he felt a weird sensation in his shoulder, and
thought he felt something passing through him (surprisingly). MY second
sighting was of Vriana Dean; that dead girl. Finally, I saw (you'll never guess
unless you look ahead!) — Demond Garland - dead! It was almost
unbelievable!! I couldn't believe he had died without anyone (including me)
knowing about it!!!

I don't think I even realized why he was dead; he never was! He never even had
a deathly existence; he was supposed to be alive, but he was never even there.
Ant that moment, I walked into Kreuter's homeroom. I, at that time of day was
supposed to be in her homeroom. During the time of my walking to her homeroom,
I felt really weird — but I felt normal! I was too normal!

I walked into Kreuter's homeroom, and was constantly walking around the room.
The people there didn't seem to know of my death, and their eyes sometimes even
seemed to follow me around. I walked up to Kreuter and tried to convey through
some mediumish force that I was here; whispering silently "I'm here, I'm
here!", spraying my hands towards her face, and walking slowly towards her.
Finally, I had a knowtion to try to pass my hand through her shoulder....

CHAPTER TWO: LIFE AFTER DEATH...

I swung my arm around towards her shoulder, attempting to make a karate pass
through it. It was about at the point of her shoulder, when it made contact!!!
And it made contact hard! But before Ms. Kreuter could reply with "hey!", I
cried out, "I'm solid! I'M SOLID!!! SOLID!!!!" I ran down the main hall,
through the outdoor basketball courts, and past the bike rack. I was almost out
of the front gate, when it hit me. "What in hell am I doing???!?", I said to
myself. "Why and how did I come back to life? I was dead, so how can I be so
energetic? It just doesn't make sense."

After about 10 minutes, I decided I needed a place to think about this. A place
nearer to nature, since I didn't feel this was a real natural death. I walked
towards the north edge of Santa Monica, Where I knew of a Natural-type pond
area.

At last, after walking for about 20 minutes, I came upon the pond myself, but I
was not alone. There, along with me, was Mr. Hurst (I don't think all
those rumors about him were true).

"What are you doing here?", I asked.

"Contemplating," replied Hurst, "I've been wondering why in hell I died and got
reborn."

"It happened to you, too???!?", I asked, anxiously.

"I didn't even know that it had happened to you. You see, I've almost caught
these murderers, but I'm scared of the consequences if the catch me first.
They've been constantly playing tricks on people, making a temporary death
simulation, and making people think they're all right. But now, they've
convinced everyone they're good guys, and are beginning to really kill people.
I have a feeling they were contemplating on you to kill after they had their
holographic fun. It's obvious they were almost caught, and had to give out on
you. But now I'm sure, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that their next victim is
going to really die."

"YOU mean this was all a holographic plot? A laser-ous syndrome? Oh, my god!
They've got to be stopped!!!" I didn't even wait for Mr. Hurst's reply. I
simply got up, and darted down towards Santa Monica....

CHAPTER THREE: MURDER BY DEATH...

I finally, after an exhausting 7-minute run, came into Lincoln. I could tell
they weren't there, and never had been. However, I knew that they would be at
Mr. Kesslers' class to pick off the next visitor. I went in to the main office,
and checked out who was next to go to Mr. Kessler's class. It was David
Thomas!!! I knew him as one of the better one of the people I knew. I had to
prevent his murder!!!

I ran as fast as I could down to Washington, and Mr. Kessler's class. I finally
reached their pick-up point. They were about to kill David! With a new burst of
strength, I darted over to the murderers. Unfortunately, one of them saw me
coming, and came at me with a knife. However, he was a total rank amateur, and
I was able to dodge the swing. The knife missed me, and drove a ½-inch
deep into the ground. Thinking quickly, I removed the knife from the ground,
but with such speed that I accidentally slit the front of one of the murderers
(along with his throat), killing him. Seeing this, the other murderer was so
damn scared, he ran as fast as I had come. David Thomas was safe.

David was still in a holographic sleep, so I simply turned off the lasers, and
he woke up. The next day in period 1, Mr. Kramer asked, "Where were you
yesterday"???!?